Rahimafrooz to launch solar panel assembly factory this yr

http://www.thefinancialexpress-bd.com/2009/09/17/79239.html

Rahimafrooz to launch solar panel assembly factory next yr

Fazlur Rahman

Rahimafrooz will launch a solar panel assembly factory next year, the first of its kind in Bangladesh, to provide customers better product at competitive prices, officials said Wednesday.

Rahimafrooz Renewable Energy Ltd (RRE), a sister concern of the more than 50-year old Group, has been providing solar solutions for households, agriculture, healthcare, education, rural streets and marketplaces for the last few years, thus transforming the lives of people and lighting up different corners of the country.

Now the company is planning to build its own assembly plant in the country as the market has matured enough to have such facilities.

“In the past, we could not go far such set-up as the market was small. But now the market has matured and the demand for solar panel is increasing day by day,” Sohel Ahmed, general manager of RRE, said.

“Now we need such a facility, which will allow us to assemble green energy products by our own. It will help us to cut import cost. At the same time, the consumers will get quality products at competitive prices,” he told the FE.

He said that the annual production capacity of the assembled plant would be 12 megawatt.

The company is now holding talks with financial institutions about the financing of Tk 400 million project.

Mr. Ahmed said: “We are now talking with financiers such as Infrastructure Development Company Limited (IDCOL) to have financial supports as panel assembling factory will require significant investment. We hope to start production by middle of the next year.”

The plant would be set up in Dhaka or its adjoining areas, he said.

Now the number of solar home systems in the country stands at around 350,000, imported from China and Britain, which will reach 750,000 in the next two years, under the supervision of state-run IDCOL, which promotes renewable energy development.

He said the market would also grow in next couple of years as the market of IDCOL is increasing. Besides, there is a government instruction to install solar panel system in every office to ease pressure on national grid.

“We have even been given go-ahead to install such system in the Prime Minister’s Office,” said Ahmed adding that on an average 15,000 systems are being installed in the country every month under the programme of IDCOL.

He said through solar systems, IDCOL is generating electricity amount to 15 to 16 mw annually.

To date, RRE has lightened up more than 100,000 rural homes in Bangladesh and the company is endeavouing to do much more in the future.

Officials of the Group said that Rahimafrooz is trying to bring all kinds of solar solutions for the country which will include solution for off-grid and grid areas.

On the possibility of bringing all base stations of telecom operators under this green energy solution, another official said:

“For off-grid, remote and semi urban areas, solar solution is feasible. But for grid areas, the solar solution is not feasible as electricity is highly subsidised in Bangladesh.”

“The abundance, inexhaustibility and non polluting nature of solar energy, have made it right alternative for conventional energy sources, which are getting fast exhausted,” he said.

Rahimafrooz is the pioneer and leader in solar solutions in Bangladesh. It is the only private sector company with practical hands on experience of installing solar solutions in the most remote and off-grid areas of Bangladesh, the official said.

The company has already successfully implemented the pilot projects for different leading telecom operators by now. “Now we are offering this solution for all the telecom operators,” said the official.